Dumping-hopper.



Patented Jan. 8, 1918.

071%??? Flee r/W lei tanner onn oia ALBERT 2P. LEE, OF CHICAGO ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR T0 LEE LOADER & BODY 00., or

CHICAGI'O, KLEIN 01S.

DUIVIEING-HOFPER.

Application filed October 13, 1916.

To all whom it may, concern:

Be it known that l, Anmcirr l LEE, a citizen of the United States. residing at Chicago in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Dumping-Hoppers, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a art of this specification. Y

ily invention relates to dumping hop )ers and has for its object the provision 0' an improved hopper of this nature which is adapted by rolling to either side of its central position to discharge the load to either side.

My improved hopper is of great utility in connection with vehicles. although its use of course is not so limited. In general this invention relates to the means emplo d to cause substantially automatic dumpingmovement of the hopper to either side of its central position. Tn order to arrange the hopper to automatically discharge its load 1 End after much experiment that a structure should be employed whereby the center of gravity of the material may be gradually lowered as the hopper moves from its central position to a discl'iarge position. l find that I get a peculiarly satist'actory structure to accomplish this end by inclining the runway on which the hopper rolls and at the same time having the outline of the rail or other portion of the hopper whichco jperates with the runway ot' a ctun 'iound curve instead of being circular. l urthermorc. the hopper when it reaches its lin'iited position is provided 5h s who; h it tilts v t, the nulnimituni which 1 'pp in rollir down the runway serving to enhance the let-t oi? the pivotal point by bringing one Slflfl of the hopper suddenly to rest so that it can act as a pivotal point for the entire hopper.

I will explain my invention more in. dctail by referring; to the accompanying draw-- ing, in which Figure 1 is an end view of a vehicle provided with a hopper constructed in accordance with my invention; and

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary sectional view of the runway and the hopper more clearly to illustrate the principles involved.

Referring more particularlv to F show a vehicle 1 upon which the l carried, this hopper being adapter Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 8, this. Serial No. 125,348.

either side of its central position to a limitsuitable limit chain 5 of course prevents the hopper from going further than its limiting position, which chain cooperates with other instrumentalities as will presently appear. A. runway 6 is provided upon which the hopper rolls, this runway sloping from the center downwardly to either side. The extremities of the runway are provided with fingers 7-7 which fingers cooperate with pins 8 to permit of a tilting or pivotal movement of the hopper when at its limiting position, the chain 5 cotiperating with the structure. Tle hopper body itself is provided with a rail 9 which rail may or may not conform throughout more or less of its length to the actual outline of the hopper bottom, it being shown in this instance as ooting throughout quite a. large portion length except at the sectors 10-10. Blocks 11 may be inserteiil between the sec tors and the rail to main ain a strong and rigid struc ure. 'l rail 9 is not constructed in the form t circle. The actual form which this rail would take constructed circularly is tomesented hy the line In practice. how 1 l" ad that l oli- :ain the heneiits pro" mentioned by drawing the bottom of the hopper from centers l3 .he left hand center 13 ser ing as a focus 1t the right hand portion of the rail. and the right hand focus serving for the left hand portion of the rail. It will thus be seen that as the rail extends upwardlyit is drawn inwardly from the position it would occupy if it were true circle, I do not of course mean to say that the rail sections have to be circles, but is readily apparent that the spirit or" the invention is to have the rail as it extends upwardly exten d inwardly .trmn the position it would ocin practice that the compound curve formed by two arcs of circles serves the purpose and I have thus illustrated it as one embodiment of my invention. Itwill be readily apparent for instance, that the center of gravlty of the hopper and contents is lowered as it rolls from its central position to its discharge positions, or at least that the center of gravity is not unduly raised by reason of the construction outlined. .If we should assume the hopper cir cular, for instance, and assume the runway straight, then if the hopper of Fig. 2 rolls to the left a certain distance the point 14 would coincide with the point 15. By reason of my construction, however, when the hopper has rolled that distance to'the left the point 16 coincides with the point 17, thus showing a lowering of the hopper and contents and thus a consequent lowering of the center of gravity in these two cases which is proportional to the distance between the points 1 1 and 16 plus the distance between the points 15 and 17.

From the above it will be readily clear that I have provided a structure by virtue of which I obtain a substantially automatic movement of the hopper from its central to its discharge positions; at any rate within practical hmits it requires very much less power or efi'ort to move the hopper from its central position to its discharge position with my construction than if a straight rail and a circular outline were used. Under such conditions actual efforts of a considerable amount would be required to efiect the dumping operation.

Having thus described one embodiment which my invention may take, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patcut is:

A device of the character described comprising a runway whose opposite sides slope downwardly, a rolling hopper adapted substantially automatically to roll downwardly on either side of said runway from its central charge carrying position to either discharge position, said hopper having exteriorly thereof and about its periphery a curved rail coiiperating' with said runway wh0se extremities slope inwardly of the position they would occupy-were said rail a true circle, and means whereby said hopper when it reaches the limit of its rolling movement pivots to completely discharge its load, said upper having a widely flaring mouth, and having portions of its bottom extend along lines substantially forming sectors of the curved rail.

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name this 29th day of September, A. D. 1916.

ALBERT P. LEE.

Witnesses:

Haznp A. Jones, MAX W. ZABEL. 

